You throw the ball. You catch the ball. You hit the ball…Of course, baseball fans know that this line from Bull Durham is far from true, part of the humor of the movie and a huge part of the fun of the game. This blog is a space to talk about baseball, being a baseball fan, all of those things that make the game fun and the Angels, because they make baseball fun for me.

Results tagged ‘ World Series ’

So, a Trip-Off Obstruction, eh? That’s certainly, well, something. One might even say it sets a new standard…well…a new standard for post season game win oddities at any rate.

Look, for the record I think the obstruction call was the correct, by the rules call. Would Allen Craig have scored if he hadn’t tripped over Will Middlebrooks? Yes. Was Middlebrooks in the path of the runner, limbs flailing as he was trying to get up? Yes. Does intention ever have anything to do with an obstruction or interference call? No. But I don’t particularly want to rehash the whole thing here. As ever, this isn’t that kind of blog. I’ve read several fascinating in depth analyses of the play, the subsequent call and the intricacies of MLB’s rulebook on other blogs and news sites. There is no way I could possibly handle it any better than my peers and betters, so I see little point in being redundant by even trying.

Something that interests me more, if only for the fact that I haven’t seen anyone discussing it, is why, to the fan, we’re all so disappointed by the call even if we happen to agree with it. I mean, I agree with the call but I finished that game feeling decidedly blah and I’m kind of a stats and rules nerd. *pauses briefly to pelt her husband with a pillow for scoffing at the ‘kind of’ part of that phrase* I think it boils down to this: in baseball, we love our oddities. We adore firsts, onlies, one of the fews and near misses. We keep more detailed and incredibly situation specific stats that any other sport. We adore rules and technicalities and we absolutely live to argue. But even the most geeky, nerdy and pedantic among us backs all of that up with an intense passion. Seriously. Go watch reruns of the last season of Clubhouse Confidential if you don’t believe me. As proof goes, watching Bill James unexpectedly go completely fanboy over some of his player exceptions to sabermetric stats and seeing Brian Kenny initially flabbergasted and then unable to keep from joining in, is pretty much incontrovertible.

So, as I was saying…we love rules and technicalities, but do we want to see a game won on a technicality no matter how correct the call? No, absolutely not. Even in an average, regular season game a conclusion that passion and skill free would be kind of a letdown. And this is the World Series, a meeting of the best of the absolute best that both leagues have to offer. I mean, we all understand that every single World Series game can’t be the stuff of legends – we’ve all seen our share of dull and uninspired post season play. But so much about the World Series is frequently epic that we have certain expectations as fans. I mean, Doc’s no hitter. Gibby’s straight from the comic books walk off homerun. That absolutely amazing extra innings come back, re-come back, come back again, extravaganza of a Cardinals/Rangers game six. The Angels coming back from certain defeat in game six to win the whole thing in game sev…what? Did I ever promise any of you I wouldn’t Angels’ fangirl in these electronic pages? No. Exactly! Quite the opposite, in fact. ;)

In this excitement filled environment, in which history has taught us to expect magnificent feats of baseball derring-do, anything less than a heated, closely contested match is already a serious letdown. So a strange fine print rules-based victory is especially anticlimactic…probably even for Cardinals’ fans, though they’ll still happily take it as they should. Now, does any of that mean that the umpires should have called the play differently? Well, should a World Series team slaughtering their opponents 12 to 0 in the 6th inning let the other guys score a little so that the fans get a more exciting game? Of course not, that would be beyond ridiculous…and so would be the umpires calling that play any differently just because it’s the World Series. Yes, it’s unsatisfying…so do the same thing you’d be doing if the scenario were any other unsatisfying conclusion to a World Series game – or any other game for that matter – and hope that the next one is better.

Of course, I can tell you one positive outcome of the obstruction call…no one’s continuing to beat a dead horse over that overturned call at second now, are they? ;)

News Flash! There is precious little, if any, justice in this world. Oh. Yeah. That not exactly news to anyone. Okay. This just in! MLB Awards are often political and don’t always go to the most deserving player. Yeah, you’re right. Not exactly earth shattering either. Okay, we’ll just go with this, even though I’m sure news has already travelled fast: Mike Trout didn’t win the Gold Glove for AL Centerfielders.

Oh well, that’s okay. I’m sure the winner had, you know, less errors, a better WAR and a higher fielding percentage than Mike Trout…ummmmmmm…yeah. Never mind. Look, sour grapes aside, none of this is meant as a diss of winner Adam Jones. He also had a very good year. A great year even. But was it, I ask you, a Trout year? No, no it was not. In fact, that should be a new measure of fielding greatness and/or just plain overall awesomeness from now on – the Trout year. “Well, he had a great career in Center and his WAR was high but what does that translate to in Trout years?”

Oh well, I suppose this is an odd sort of balancing of the scales after Erick Aybar won the Gold Glove with more errors than either of the other two finalists last season. When it comes to MLB Awards, in any given season there’s plenty of WTF to go around.

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Congratulations to the 2012 World Champion San Francisco Giants! But I do have to say, as an unaffiliated fan rooting for a borrowed team, that was one boring World Series. Deadly boring in fact. Oh, I watched it and I was pleased to have four more games before we begrudgingly usher in the dread long winter without. But wouldn’t it have been better to have 6 or 7 games to tide us through till Spring Training? If you were to say I was spoiled by the sheer nail biting amazingness of 2011’s close, hard fought duel to the finish, you’d be absolutely right. But that doesn’t make it wrong to have hoped for the Tigers to take the lead once – nay, several times – before Game 4. Sweeps are only fun for the fans of the team doing the sweeping…and even then, I’m not so sure.

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It’s early yet, but we’ve still had a bit of Angels contract news. The team extended Chris Iannetta’s contract, which pleases me greatly. They also put Bobby Wilson out on Waivers and he was picked up by the Toronto Blue Jays, who are apparently trying to collect the whole tradable set of Angels cast off catchers. I know Wilson wasn’t an All Star, headline grabbing catcher, but he was a more than serviceable backstop who busted his ass to do right by the team in general and Angels pitchers in particular. He always played whatever role was asked of him with a great attitude and a smile on his face and I don’t think that gets as much recognition as it should.

I’m not questioning Jerry Dipoto’s decision to part ways with Wilson. It does make a lot of sense to finally create enough room for Hank Conger to move up to the Bigs full time. But what I am saying is that I noticed Bobby Wilson’s efforts and contributions, noticed and appreciated them. I enjoyed rooting for him as an Angel and now I wish him all the best as a Jay or wherever they trade him to…even if it’s Texas. *grumble, grumble, Texas, grumble, grumble*

While I certainly have a myriad of hopes for other Angels personnel decisions, at the moment I’m primarily focused on the fate of free agent Torii Hunter. First and foremost, he’s my favorite Angel – on a long list of favorites, mind you, but still – and as a very close second, in case you weren’t watching last season, he absolutely kicked ass. While I doubt his 2013 numbers will match his 2012 numbers, I’m sure they’ll still be very good indeed, not to mention all of the mentoring he provides, shaping the Angels of the future. So, Jerry? Torii? Just so we’re clear, I have all of my fingers, toes and anything else I can think of to cross, crossed hoping for news that Torii Hunter stays an Angel in 2013. Got it? Eeeeeeexcellent!

Just before 5 p.m., feeding time for our baseball addiction, Seth and I crept down the mountain from the Yosemite cabin to catch the game at a truly delicious barbecue joint in Oakhurst. We have meals to cook at the cabin, despite the lack of stove, and things we want to do in the evenings that preclude a 90 minute round trip just to find an available television, so we knew we were only going to catch one more game this vacation and, as it turned out, we picked a fun one. I chose this evening’s game because I wanted to see a great pitchers’ duel and just hoped that Barry Zito would hold up his end of the bargain by building on his heroic NLCS outing. I never expected that a pitchers’ duel would fail to materialize because Justin Verlander was having an off night. But, you know what? Those cheesy Postseason commercials really are true: you can’t script October.

Usually I don’t enjoy a blowout as much as a close game, even when the winning team is the team I’m rooting for, but who could possibly call themselves a baseball fan and not enjoy Pablo Sandoval’s three homerun game? …Well…okay, fine…Tigers fans get a pass on this one. ;) Sandoval is now only the fourth player to hit three home runs in a Postseason game. Talk about complete and utter Panda-monium in the Bay Area! Also, I think that this one-sided score doesn’t really tell the whole story. From what I saw, yes, the Tigers absolutely gave up when Verlander got shelled, but they also recovered and tried valiantly to get back in the game at the end there, it was just too little, too late. The end result was a dazzling display of highlight reel worthy diving and leaping defensive plays on both sides. With the Tigers showing strong signs of life at the end to the point that the Giants blew through three relievers to get the last three outs, tomorrow’s game could be a different story. But, a story with a similar Giants ending or one more to the Tigers liking, who can say. See previous comment about commercial cliches, scripting and October.

Woah, Woah, Woah. What’s with all this Giants Stuff?

Okay, okay. I know what you all must be thinking, reading my last few posts. Is this an Angels blog or some sort of weird hybrid Giants/Nationals/Orioles blog heavier on the west coast bias than on the east? Have the Angels finally driven this blogger so crazy that she’s lost all focus? Now that’s just crazy talk. Of course this is an Angels blog. But this is October, the Angels almost-an-October never quite materialized, and I will be damned if I spend the month mourning the lack of Angels to such a degree that I miss out on the LAST FEW WEEKS OF BASEBALL before the looooong wintery time without.

Even as a huge fan of the game, it’s so much more fun to root for someone than just to watch with no skin in the game, so once the Angels are out of the running, I pick other teams to root for. Borrowed skin, as it were. No, this isn’t being a bandwagon fan. Bandwagon fans hop on that bandwagon in good times and pretend they’re diehards from way back before jumping right off again in bad times. No bandwagon fans here. I am simply shamelessly loving the one I am with, namely your team, for a week or two or however long they last in the postseason because I can’t be with the one I want…and I have absolutely no problem explaining that. …Also, yes, my father did raise me with an appreciation for the classics and generally excellent taste in music. Why do you ask? ;)

This postseason my adopt a team philosophy has lead me to root for the Nationals – because they’d never been to the World Series as Expos or Nationals and I like rooting for a lovable underdog – the Orioles – because of their long World Series drought, see previous discussion of the Nationals – the A’s – because they had a fun team this season despite the fact that I almost never root for another AL West team also I couldn’t very well break tradition now and root for the Yankees – the Tigers – see previous conversation about the A’s – and the Giants because of family ties…

Our Blogger Heroine’s Strange Origins

…Long story shortened, I am the lone living Red sheep (my grandfather was a diehard Angels fan) in a family split on both my mother’s and my father’s sides between the Dodgers fan base and the Giants. Oddly enough, this means I grew up with a weird affection for both teams. But Kristen, how can you like both teams? Don’t you know about the Dodgers/Giants rivalry? Hello, did you not just read the previous two sentences? I have family on both sides of the rivalry…family who share food across the table at holiday gatherings…holiday gatherings that take place in the months following the baseball postseason. Savvy?

Such passion, while often contentious, is also contagious so, as improbable and downright wrong as this sounds, I have both an affection and a respect for the Dodgers and the Giants that still pales in comparison to my diehard passion for the Angels. I follow the Dodgers and the Giants out of the corner of my eye while I’m watching the Angels all season. I know the players on both teams and generally wish them both well. If either the Dodgers or the Giants makes it to the Postseason and there are no Angels to root for, then I’m rooting for that team. If both of them ever make it to the Postseason and there are no Angels to root for, well then I’ll probably root for the Dodgers – my immediate family are the Dodgers fans, so I grew up going to games in Chavez Ravine – and try to lay low on FaceBook when the cousins start trash talking. So, you see, it doesn’t matter that I felt nothing particularly for or against the Reds, that I generally like the Cardinals, and that I think the Tigers have a pretty fun team this season. This Giants rooting thing was as inevitable as it is fun and strictly relegated to an Angel-less October.

Personally, I am not a football fan. I don’t actively dislike football so much as it just fails to hold my attention for any length of time. I understand the rules and some of the basic strategies. I enjoy the pomp and circumstance of the Super Bowl, all the more so on those occasions, like today, when it’s actually a good game. But, well, it’s not like I would even know who was playing well in advance if it weren’t for the fact that my boss is from Boston with all of the fan affiliations that that entails and some of the guys at work are Giants fans. Still, watching the game today at my department’s annual Super Bowl party, it occurred to me that love it, hate it or something in between, there are several things the passionate baseball fan should appreciate about the Super Bowl.

1) Whether you are also a rabid football fan or someone like me who can take it or leave it, I think all passionate baseball fans can agree that single best thing about the Super Bowl is that it means our long winter ordeal is almost over, pitchers and catchers are mere days away from reporting. Oh, sure. Fine. There is the game itself and all that, you more rabid two and three sport types say. But ask yourself this, how often is the game really that good? Personally I remember a lot more dull one-sided exhibition-y affairs than I do real, exciting games. So I stand by my number one, thank you very much. Which brings me to…

2) More often than not, the Super Bowl is one of the more potent reminders of how much we should appreciate baseball’s lack of a clock. Let’s hear it for no “now stall for the next 8 minutes until the clock runs out” strategy. Hip. Hip. Hooray!! Because as fun and complex strategy laden as the 1st half of the Super Bowl often is, the 4th quarter, and sometimes much of the 2nd half, is just as often dull and plodding with the game’s outcome already decided. Clearly this year’s Super Bowl did not suffer from a ho hum 4th quarter, however this is not always or even often the case.

3) The food! Baseball is a marathon not a sprint, as every manager and most of the players will tell us countless times throughout the season and the spreads we put out for enjoying the game reflect this. No way, no how could we indulge in the wonderfully glutinous array of tastiness that is the traditional Super Bowl spread for every game of a four to seven game World Series, let alone for the regular season. We’d die from the sheer excess of it all. So baseball fans should appreciate and enjoy the ritual of the Super Bowl super munchies for the rare opportunity that it is.

4) Practice, practice, practice. I don’t know about you all, but I put my throat through a serious workout during the regular baseball season. Yelling. Cheering. Ranting at the tv. It can be tough on the unprepared body. This is probably not an issue for the multisport fans among us but it’s not like I really indulge in these activities in the offseason. I mean, seriously, “All right Bohannan! Way to bad ass your way out of the that one.” or “Come on Chef Freitag, can’t you see he respected the ingredient?!” just doesn’t really work for me. So the Super Bowl is kind of like that initial work out preparing my throat for the Spring Training that will fully prepare it for the regular season to come.

5) Camaraderie! Again, this is probably not as much an issue for some of you who are multi-sport fans. But for those of us who only or who mostly come alive for baseball, it’s not just missing the season, it’s missing the camaraderie of sharing the game with friends, with family, with complete strangers at the ballpark, at the sports bar, tailgating in the parking lot. The Super Bowl is one great big excuse to enjoy a little tide me over sports fueled camaraderie until the regular baseball season begins with a huge party…even if a lot of the participants are only watching for the commercials. My department throws an especially fun Super Bowl party and, wow, that really hit the spot for me today.

Now, the Super Bowl is over. Let the happy dancing in honor of the close proximity of the annual reporting of pitchers and their masked counterparts commence. One. Two. Oh, come on. You know you’re going to do it. Three. Uh huh. I thought so. ;)

First thing’s first. Congratulations to the Cardinals! From ten games out of the Wild Card Race to World Series Champions, it was an inspiring comeback worthy of a classic baseball movie. Bravo and well deserved!

Angels Owner Arte Morneo welcomes new General Manager Jerry Dipoto into the fold at the Angels Saturday press conference. Photo by JOHN CORDES/ANGELS - from the Angels website, http://losangeles.angels.mlb.com/

More importantly from my perspective though, the Angels did announce Jerry Dipoto as our new General Manager…as, you know, we might have guessed from all of the announcements announcing that the Angels could not in fact announce this move until after World Series was over. (Sorry, but as a sometime media and PR wonk, I love that kind of inspired work around the rules!). Oh, I know there has been a lot of talk since Tony Reagins’ departure about Kim Ng, which had me intrigued, and Andrew Friedman, which had me outright salivating even though I knew it wasn’t going to happen. But when it comes to personnel decisions and the Angels, reading speculation about it in the press, short of a very official sounding “unofficial” precursor to an announcement that is, is one of the biggest guarantees you can get that it isn’t going to happen.

If loose lips sink ships and one could logically infer that the inverse of this old school saying is true as well, the entire United States Navy could happily float on the closed lips of the Angels front office…with plenty of room for complex practice maneuvers and future growth. Besides, Andrew Friedman? Please. I don’t think you could separate him from Tampa Bay with a crowbar right now let alone for any money, especially after the miracle the Rays pulled off this season aided by his efforts on the personnel front.

So, now that the decision’s been made? Well, only time will tell but so far I’m happy about it. Dipoto is exactly what the Angels talked about bringing in when they first announced Reagins’ resignation, young, fresh and brand new to the GM position. For that reason, I only know what I have read about Dipoto in the last few days and what he said during the press conference. But I like what I’ve learned so far, especially his history in the Diamond Backs organization as Director of Scouting and Player Personnel and later as Interim General Manager. I think we can all agree that Arizona has made some excellent personnel decisions these last few seasons.

I liked what he had to say during the press conference about the Angels just needing a few key tweaks in the right direction rather than a complete overhaul, because the last I thing I want is for all of last season’s promising rookies to become this off season’s trade fodder for a string of great-for-the-next-two-seasons-and-then-blaaaah players. I like that Dipoto doesn’t align himself rigidly with either straight old school personnel theories or sabermetrics theories, but talks instead about an effective balance using ideas from all schools of thought. I liked hearing him talk about exploring all avenues for player acquisition including Latin America and Japan. And I love the fact that Dipoto’s passion for the game seems to be the first thing colleagues and teammates mention when describing him. Yes, all of this is talking a good game and talking and executing a good game do not always go hand in hand. But Dipoto has talked a sufficiently good game that I am intrigued and hopeful to see how he executes his game over the next several seasons.

The only thing I didn’t like was how obvious it became during the press conference that the rumors of Mike Scioscia’s supposed status as the “real GM behind a puppet GM” have grown wildly out of hand. When both Mike Scioscia and Arte Moreno feel a need to comment on and deny such speculation and Dipoto has to answer questions about his ability to work with Scioscia while still having his own voice heard, it’s all more than a little ridiculous. Please people! I love me some Mike Scioscia. He was one of my favorite Dodgers and one of the biggest reasons I switched camps to the other end of the 5 freeway all those years ago. But we’re talking about a man who routinely devises upwards of 125 different lineups for 162 games. With that level of…um…shall we say attention to detail?…can you imagine how much time he must put in before each game strategizing and such? Now can you imagine how much time a person with that level of “attention to detail” would spend studying, planning and executing trades, signings and the like? Now please remember that there are still only 24 hours in a day and that he has to spend some of them sleeping. Does Scioscia as some sort of puppet master GM still seem like a sound theory to you? Didn’t think so.

Welcome to the Angels organization Jerry Dipoto! May you live up to the good game you’ve talked so far.

Game 6 was…Wow! Just wow! It was so amazingly, excitingly, excruciatingly edge of your seat suspensefully, fantastically awesome that I simply cannot find the right adjectives to describe it. So I’m throwing any that come even remotely close out there in one large jumble, hoping that sum of the parts hits closer to the mark. I guess what I’m saying is that this isn’t really my description of last night’s game, it’s a tribute. ;)

David Freese stands at the plate in the bottom of the 9th, with the Cardinals down by two, and the Rangers one strike away from becoming World Series champions for the first time in their franchise history. That moment, so full of potential for either heroics or disappointment, when the outcome can go either way and everything is riding on one pitch and one swing? That moment was microcosm for everything I love about this game, regardless of who is playing…and that moment happened two more times in the same game!!

Forget the box score. Five errors and 15 different pitchers? Stats like that almost make this sound like a game neither team wanted to win badly enough rather than the 11 innings of bare knuckled brawl for the final lead that it was. No box score is ever going to completely convey a game like this anyway. But I suspect that in a few seasons, MLBN will revise their 20 Greatest Games of the Last 50 Years and when they do, this game is sure to be on that list.

And I will say this. Anyone who was not excited by last night’s game (and there were a few such killjoys on my FaceBook last night) should seriously check their pulse, because if that didn’t move you, it’s entirely possible you don’t have one. And with Halloween drawing near…well…you just can’t be too careful about these things. Beware of zombies, and all that. ;)

And there’s still one more game to go!

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And in Angels news…

Baseball organizations are starting to announce their annual awards and the Sporting News has named our Mark Trumbo AL Rookie of the Year!

Mark Trumbo's habit of siting in the pitcher's mound down his bat when he steps into the batter's box has become a reassuring sight to Angels fans. Angels vs. Rangers, August 16, 2011. Photo by This is a very simple game...

I am so pleased! Mark Trumbo meant everything to the Angels this season. He may have started off slow, but he grew into a difference making bat in a lineup desperately in need of one. Trumbo’s 29 homeruns were the most hit by an AL rookie in well more than a decade and just shy of the franchise rookie record. I wonder what he might have done if it weren’t for the stress fracture discovered in his foot during the last weekend of the regular season. To be honest, I’m actually a little anxious for an injury update on that front. It should be a routine injury that keeps him out of Winter Ball and no more but, well, we have terrible luck with first basemen’s feet these days and I’d hate to lose this rising star for any amount of time.

I don’t know where Trumbo will finish in the race for the Hank Aaron Rookie of the Year award. There is some stiff competition in the AL this season, so much so that I was pleased to see Trumbo get recognition on any front, even though he is more than deserving. But this analytical, slugging first baseman, who literally takes notes to work from on every pitcher and hitter we face, is sure to just keep on getting better. And, regardless of how the voting goes, I expect his name will be on a lot more lips next season.

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Oh, and apparently we have a GM. The unofficial announcement, announcing the fact the Angels can’t announce their hiring of the Arizona D-Backs Jerry Dipoto during the World Series but will hold a news conference on Saturday “regarding the GM position” just, you know, for no particular reason hit the news today. Hmmm, I am not certain exactly what I think of this yet but basically feel positive about it. …That and I am overcome with the desire to reread Catch-22…you now, for no particular reason.

For the last few years Seth and I have spent the second to last weekend of every October in Cambria and Paso Robles for the Wine Alliance’s Harvest Festival. Sadly, the Angels have either been out of it by this point or never in it to begin with so taking a trip away hasn’t been a tough decision. What will we do next year or in 2013 if the Angels are still in the thick of things? Well, suffice to say that is a conundrum I would love to have! It’ not like we’d have hotel reservations to cancel. We stay at his folks’ place. Yes, I know how lucky I am!

Random thoughts from the weekend:

1) Taking a trip up here in the middle of the post season doesn’t have to mean sacrifice for the baseball fan. There is usually someplace great to watch the game, a winery throwing a baseball party, like the one we attended last year, a local you hit it off with tipping you off to an open party somewhere, or something. Sights like this are not uncommon. Best. License. Plate. Ever…okay…maybe not ever, but still:

Cool folks abound in Paso Robles and you meet the nicest ones at bacon and wine pairings. Go figure. Photo by This is a very simple game...

2) Things are not always what they seem. I figured I’d get my tips on where to watch the game this weekend from the baseball winery. No dice. Because of the too mild weather, harvest is still going on instead of just finished and all of their biggest baseball fans are out working. No, I got my best tips – and excellent wine! – from the gentleman at the Pithy Little Wine Company, nestled in a gorgeous boutique looking tasting room in downtown. And thank you, good Sir, excellent tips they were.

3) There have been less bad calls this post season than I remember from other post seasons, but they’re still there.

4) I said it before and I’ll say it again, I miss having a Molina brother behind the plate.

5) Every time I sit down to watch Albert Pujols play I think, nah, he can’t quite live up to the hype no matter how good he is…only to be reminded a few plays later that, no, really, he is that good.

6) Even injured, Josh Hamilton is almost that good. St Louis fan walking into the bar for the first time in the 6th inning: What happened? How did Texas score that last run? Me: Josh Hamilton happened. St. Louis fan: Say no more.

7) Sitting down at the bar to watch the game, wherein you are rooting for St. Louis as your borrowed team, behind this sight is not as daunting as you might think. Hey, at least you know they’re all baseball fans and not going to start whining about wanting to change the station to football!:

Clearly these fine folks are disappointed Phillies fans, just latching on to another team for the rest of the month, LOL! True Texas fans the lot of them, great bsseball fans, and really nice folks. Photo by This is a very simple game...

8) Catching a ball I can understand. I would never lean out over the rail to catch a ball, even if I don’t agree with it, on some level I understand why someone might do this in the heat of the moment. But throwing a ball onto the field? Seriously? I can’t understand it at all. Kudos to the Rangers ushers for kicking him out…not that I expected anything less.

9) Cheese and wine pairing is wonderful. Small bites and wine even better. BBQ and wine pairing rocks. But a bacon and wine pairing is the best of all. Yes, bacon and wine. And I assure you, it was even better than it sounds, especially the wild boar bacon paired with rich cabernet. Yum! And it’s even better when you meet another baseball fan couple up from Los Angeles for the festival weekend. A Cubbie and a Red Sox fan – proof that two long standing curses (one broken and then some) can cancel one another out into a happy marriage.

10) I wished Mike Napoli all the best with the Rangers when he got traded and I meant it. But I have to confess, hearing the entire stadium chant Nap-o-li, Nap-o-li when he comes up to bat with runners in scoring position and seeing all of the signs that talk about how clutch he is makes me feel a little ill. Why couldn’t you have done some of that for us, Mike? I know you didn’t have as many opportunities, but you did have opportunities.

11) Regarding the previous bullet, I don’t know where this sort of October pettiness is coming from. I haven’t always been this childish about losing. They say adversity breeds character. Well, apparently, baseball “adversity” breeds the wrong kind of character in me. *sigh*

12) For a game where the final score was so darned uneven, it sure didn’t seem uneven in the middle. I swear Texas was on the verge of catching up every time they came up to the plate.

13) Cambria is small and internet access at the house is always sketchy and, in fact, non existent this weekend, but there are worse things. Spending the afternoon like this up the street at Moonstone Cellars, one of the wineries with free Wi-Fi while we plot our dinner and game viewing strategy (no TV at the house either), doesn’t suck. Tempranillo. Yuuuuuum!:

Wine, cheese, books, blogging _and_ the games on in 15! Is the heaven? No ma'am, just Cambria. Photo by This is a very simple game...

From the first two outs (*sigh* I want a Molina brother behind the plate again! And, wow! It’s a flying Super Carpenter!) Game 1 did not disappoint. I find that while I have less team specific passion for the game when I don’t have a team in the mix, if the game is a good one my overall baseball fan passion is still thoroughly indulged. And, hey, my temporarily-adopted-strictly-for-the-month-of-October team won! Keep it going Cardinals!

But as much as I enjoyed this game, it only served to underscore the fact that there is someone I am missing. Missing terribly. We take a lot of breaks in our relationship, and this is just one more scheduled break, so I shouldn’t be so mopey about it. But it…well…it’s just that baseball is so much our thing that it’s impossible to enjoy a game like this without feeling like something is missing.

It doesn’t help that everywhere I turn these last few weeks there are the inevitable relationship reminders:

When I turn on the TV:

When I do the laundry:

When I leave for work in the morning:

Heck, even when I pay my bills!:

You’re on my car:

You’re in my living room:

Apparently you’re even still lurking in my husband’s pockets:

Oh Angels baseball! I’m used to the long winters apart but why’d you have to leave me so early two years in a row?! I understand. I do. You need to rest. Regroup. Recover. Think about something completely non-baseball related for awhile.

I know it will be different in the spring. You’ll be more attentive. More involved and into the relationship with me and all of the other women and men in your life for the entire season. And we won’t, any of us, have to take a relationship break until the end of October!!

It’s okay, Angels Baseball. You don’t have to respond. We all know this is what you want too. ;)

World Series Here They Come
Cardinals and Rangers it is! It may not be the World Series matchup I was envisioning at any point this season, but if the LDS and LCS were any indication, this should be a fun series. So I’ll be rooting for the Cardinals then. It’s petty, to be sure. But I just can’t root for the team that took the AL-West. The Rangers absolutely deserve to be where they are. They have one of the scariest line-ups in baseball and have played lights out all season long. But, call it sour grapes, call it immaturity as a fan, darned if I can bring myself to root for them. That said, if the Cardinals want to beat these guys and end the season as World Series champions, as I hope they will, their starting rotation needs to be more consistent. I don’t think you’re going to be able to give up three homeruns to the Rangers in the first two innings and still pull off a win. Although, crazy, amazing things have been happening for the last month or so. And a come from behind, spoiler of a team that inspires Tony La Russa to disturbing acts of cuteness – Who knew he had it in him? – might just be able to do anything.

Prince Fielder
I am tired of hearing the about the supposed inevitability of Prince Fielder leaving Milwaukee this winter spoken in the sad, hushed tones usually reserved for a terminal cancer diagnosis. “Oh, woe is us! If only there were something anyone could do.” No one passed a law decreeing this must be so. I don’t even recall a petition. And it’s not prophecy. No watery tart rose from a movie set in Python-esque fashion to extend the legendary bat ex-sluggingcalibur to a couple of gits standing there with coconut shells (or would that be peanut shells in this baseball version?). There is something someone can do about it. Prince Fielder can decide to accept the offer Milwaukee is certain to extend and stay.

Strange tractor beam like market forces do not just snatch free agents up and move them from team to team against their will. Free agents make decisions. And as far as decisions go, it’s not as if Prince Fielder is going to be asked to choose between untold riches and a modest living wherein if he saves wisely someday he might be able to send one of his kids to college. He will be asked to choose between millions and even more millions. That said, there is nothing evil or wrong with choosing even more millions. This is a personal, long term career decision and money is an extremely compelling, understandable argument. However, athletes do make decisions for personal reasons too. It’s not as if that just isn’t done. Cliff Lee prefers to play in Philly, even if they weren’t the highest bidder. Jered Weaver preferred not to test the free agent market because he already knew where he wanted to spend his career and didn’t want to haggle indefinitely. So, if Prince Fielder really doesn’t want to leave the Brewers, he doesn’t have to. He can choose to stay. And if he does choose to leave for a higher bidder it will be because there is something he wanted more than he wanted to stay with the Brewers and that’s all there is to that. Not an inevitable tragedy, just a career decision…and one that despite all of the speculation, Fielder has not actually made yet, or at least not made public.

Boston Dirty Laundry
I find what happened in Boston disturbing. No, not the collapse. Not even the finger pointing. A certain amount of that is only to be expected after such a disappointment. No, it was the anonymous, public and extremely personal nature of the finger pointing in the Boston Globe article. The tales of bad attitudes, slacking work ethics, drinking and a manager’s marital and alleged medicinal woes? Back in the day, this is the kind of stuff you would only hear about years later when someone involved decided to spice up a memoir with a few tell alls, if you ever heard about it at all.

And there’s a reason for that: it’s completely unproductive. Airing this sort dirty laundry so very publically doesn’t help a team. It doesn’t help the fans. And it doesn’t help a front office fix problems and move forward. And the anonymous source(s) who provided the dirt know that. No one is going to turn around six months from now and say, “You know what the turning point was? It was that article. It really helped everyone sit down together as a team and pledge to work harder together for a better 2012.” And it bothers me that someone who is close enough to a team to have this kind of information (allegedly – anonymous sources and all that.) would, instead of using it in some productive way, choose to use it to strike out at a team for their own reasons (which, depending on who you think the source(s) is, could be any number of things). The reason I bring this up is not to beat up on Boston. I don’t think this is a uniquely Boston thing at all. But when it comes to this sort of information, I do think that sometimes the old ways are best. Save it for the memoir, when it no longer matters if it’s productive or not anymore and you have to have the guts to put your name on it.

First things first – Welcome back from the All Star Break in style Angels!!! Okay, okay. So the Angels’ All Star Break lasted a little longer than that of most other teams…pretty much until Wednesday, round about the 3rd inning actually. But after a crazy comeback win against the Rangers Wednesday and shutting the Rangers out on Thursday, I think I can cut the Angels some slack. After all, who among us hasn’t experienced “vacation lag”? I know I’m experiencing it this week!

So, about that vacation. We wrapped up the Bay Area Baseball Extravaganza with a visit to the beautiful and luxurious AT&T Park on Monday night to take in the Giants vs. Dodgers game. And if I was late enough to the game that I missed first pitch, so were all of these fine folks. Hmmm…I think L.A. has been unjustly maligned on this point ;) :

Entering AT&T Park through the main Willie Mays gate. Gorgeous! Giants vs. Dodgers, July 18, 2011. Photo by This is a very simple game...

Late for the game? How does this happen on vacation? We went for a bike ride late Monday morning on the Marsh Creek trail in Pittsburgh, CA, along marshes and canals off of San Francisco Bay. It was so beautiful and fun that we didn’t hit the car again until 24 miles and a few hours later. So much for catching batting practice, but darned if we didn’t have a blast:

The Marsh Creek Trail in Pittsburgh, CA. July 18, 2011. Photo by This is a very simple game...

AT&T Park is gorgeous, from the front gates to the seating areas to the view out over the right field all to the tops of ships in McCovey Cove.:

The view over the right field section towards McCovey Cove. AT&T Park. Giants vs. Dodgers, July 18, 2011. Photo by This is a very simple game...

My college friend and his partner, Giants fans, both, accompanied us to the game and clued us in to some of AT&T Park’s finer details. For example, I had no idea that the grates in right field are open to the public walk that runs between the stadium and McCovey Cove. Fans strolling by are invited to stand and watch some of the game free of charge. Very cool:

Free view into the stadium, anyone? Quite the cool concept! Giants vs. Dodgers, July 18, 2011. Photo by This is a very simple game...

There is not a bad seat in the house, certainly not our second row seats in the club section just above left field – vacations are for splurges after all! And there are lots of fan friendly touches in the seating sections. Club section ushers politely only allow fans past the doors to their seats in between plays and at bats, so seated fans don’t miss a pitch. In the outfield “bleachers” there are wide, lower concourses in front of the seats, so fans can pass by without blocking anyone’s view.:

The outfield seats at AT&T Park, with plenty of room to walk around. Giants vs. Dodgers, July 18, 2011. Photo by This is a very simple game...

If the Coliseum is no frills, AT&T Park is all frills possible. The food is phenomenal and there is quite a diverse selection. And in the club section, there are full bars with actual bartenders! I ordered an Irish coffee to keep the chill away in the later innings, and the bartender wisely never touched the Bailey’s while preparing my drink. Eureka!

One of the many full bars on the club level at AT&T Park. Giants vs. Dodgers, July 18, 2011. Photo by This is a very simple game...

Though I was amused to note that for all its frills, AT&T Park is still a mixed use facility. Note that from this vantage, in a different uniform, Cody Ross could be playing goalie:

Cody Ross prepares to run in left field. ross was one of my favorite stories to come out of the '10 Series, out of many great ones from both the Giants and the Rangers. Note the soccer field chalk marks. Giants vs. Dodgers, July 18, 2011. Photo by This is a very simple game...

Being on vacation, I was really out of the loop on trade news. Imagine my surprise, when this friendly face appeared on the Jumbotron in Dodger Blue. Welcome back to sunny Southern California, Juan, and best of luck to you!

Former Angel Juan Rivera, the newest Dodger of all. Giants vs. Dodgers, July 18, 2011. Photo by This is a very simple game...

When you’re not really cheering for either side, a competitive game is the most fun to watch, and this game was better than the 5 to 0 shutout score would lead one to believe. The Dodgers made a couple of really good plays and had several strong hits, but just couldn’t string any of it together long enough to get on the board. The Giants played very well throughout.:

Aubrey Huff lines out to Matt Kemp in center in the 1st inning. Is it just me, or does Mr. Huff's name sound like some sort of Roger Moore era Bond girl? I jest, but I have aways liked Huff and was thrilled to see him get a ring last season, was thrilled to see him contribute so heavily to the earning of that ring. Giants vs. Dodgers, July 18, 2011. Photo by This is a very simple game...(Seth)

Pablo Savdoval and Nate Schierholtz cross the plate...except Dodgers catcher Rod Barrajas is moving off the field because Aubrey Huff lined out to Matt Kemp in center. The Giants runners will figure it out eventually. Giants vs. Dodgers, July 18, 2011. Photo by This is a very simple game... (Seth)

James Loney catches the foul pop fly as Chad Billingsley moves to back him up and Cody Ross is out. Giants vs. Dodgers, July 18, 2011. Photo by This is a very simple game...(Seth)

Rod Barrajas takes a big swing. Chris Stewart is catching. Giants vs. Dodgers, July 18, 2011. Photo by This is a very simple game...

Nate Schierholtz smacks a double in the 1st inning. Rod Barrajas is catching. Giants vs. Dodgers, July 18, 2011. Photo by This is a very simple game...(Seth)

Nate Schierholtz leads off first while James Loney waits for a possible pick-off attempt. Giants vs. Dodgers, July 18, 2011. Photo by This is a very simple game...

So with all of this wonderfulness, were there any drawbacks AT&T Park? Just one actually, and it really surprised me. I love Giants fans. I went to the Bay Area to stay with and attend the game with two of them. I have rabid Giants fans in my family. I attended playoff parties with scores of them in Paso Robles and count several in their number as friends but, oh my goodness, when they all get together in one large group at AT&T Park, an awful lot of them choose to be dicks. In the club section for crying out loud! Not in the “we all came to get drunk and obnoxious but can’t name more than a handful of players on the team” section. Now I don’t know where the “we all came to get drunk and obnoxious but can’t name more than a handful of players on the team” section is at AT&T Park, but they must have one. All ballparks have one. We certainly do. ;)

I am not some delicate flower that cannot cope with heckling. Hello, how much time do I spend at the ballpark? Cheering. Heckling. Being passionate for your team. All are very important, traditional parts of the game for home fans and visiting fans alike. But isn’t it supposed to stay in the stands? In my experience at the Big A with rival fans and walking through Dodger Stadium and the Coliseum in Angels gear, the concourse, the bathrooms, the food stands, the ticket lines, etc, are all neutral ground, free from any of the fan on fan heckling that may or may not be going on in the seats.

Not so at AT&T Park. Walking through the concourse on the club level, past the carving station, the full bar and other wonders, Seth turned to me with a huge smile and said, Wow, this makes the club level in Anaheim look pretty plain. And he’s right. I love the Big A, but it is nowhere near this luxurious. A random Giants fan heard us and said loudly, that’s because the Angels suck as his friends all nodded and laughed and it wasn’t friendly laughter. Really? We weren’t even talking to him. “Not when they play the Giants…not in 2002.” Well that wasn’t nearly as funny, apparently, and the group of them quickly dispersed.

Random jerks and an isolated incident, right? Well, not for the Dodgers fans in attendance. I saw three separate instances of lone Dodger fans being heckled, and not in a “we’re friends who came together and are giving each other grief” way either, by small groups of Giants fans while we walked to our seats. I saw more instances later. On the concourse! On the club level!! For all I know, this goes on in reverse at Dodgers stadium, outside of the aforementioned “we all came to get drunk and obnoxious…” section. But the impression I got is that some Giants fans are wearing their new World Series title a lot more gracefully than others.

I’m not saying that the Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown mean kids “We’re number one! We’re number one!” vibe ruined my trip to the ball park. I had an amazing time. What I am saying is that amenities are lovely, frills make any experience that much more special, and given the chance to return to AT&T Park again as a baseball fan with no real ties to either team, as I did on this occasion, I would do so in a heartbeat. But as for attending a game as an out of town fan of the visiting team? I’d take the Coliseum over AT&T Park any day.

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